Reviewing Your Underlying Funds - Hot Topics Q & A

Q. I have approximately £100,000 invested with 4 different providers. I have an ISA, 2 PEPs and a personal pension plan. I've not reviewed the underlying funds for a few years now and don't really know how to check if what I have is still suitable.

What should I do to check this?

A. You've pretty much described the dilemna most investors find themselves in - holding a sizeable amount of money across various funds within a number of tax 'wrappers'.

In our experience, what most investors want is a fair return on their capital whilst minimising the amount of risk they are taking. Obviously there is risk with any type of investing, but why take more than you need to?

What you need to do is:

- REALLY understand what your appetite for investment risk is

- analyse how much of your money is exposed to risks that you are not comfortable with   

- alter the percentage weightings within your portfolio to increase/decrease the risk exposure

- work out how much risk you actually NEED to take to achieve your overall goals (may be different to the amount of risk that you will be comfortable with)

You could undertake this research yourself, but you'll probably find that it will take too long and you may end up missing out some of the detail.

You'd be far better off using an expert who has access to the right tools and will not miss any of the crucial areas. Now you may expect us to say that, but we wouldn't dream of removing our own teeth as we know a few experts who are far better at it than we would be